The importance of conducting an effective integration process post-acquisition cannot be overstated. Ensuring new employees feel comfortable in the workplace is essential. Updating internal company processes is also important. Often, the difference between a successful and failed merger comes down to the effort put into integration. One of the greatest benefits of M&A is being able to incorporate your acquisition’s strengths into your own company’s processes. You truly wouldn’t be doing your hard work justice if you failed to do so post transaction.
Practice What You Preach
One of the absolute fundamental facets of integration is training. In turn, it is crucial to approach this task with a great sense of practicality. Do not perceive it as a chore which simply requires a box to be ticked. Putting enough time into training any new employees, as well as older established employees, with all of the newly implemented processes and systems is essential to the future success of the merger.
Resultantly, it is vital for the likes of top management and HR to implement a thoroughly thought out training process. It should combine both group and individual tasks. In doing so, you are able to develop employees in a range of conditions and contexts. From working with various issues to handling pressure situations and operating the company’s online portal. By applying such a comprehensive training program, it will go a long way in safeguarding the company’s continuity and progress in its newly merged and or expanded form.
Ensuring Long-Term Success Through Evaluation
Beyond the training phase, it is important that the principles, concepts and processes that have been taught are not neglected or forgotten going forward. You must implements some solidified evaluation processes. You must do so whilst maintaining a high level of dialogue between HR, employees and top management regarding the new procedures. Therefore, all the time, money and effort placed upon the training does not go to waste.
As a result, it becomes easier not only to track individual and department performances, but to also isolate the particular processes that are working well, which need improvement, and which need to be scrapped altogether. The fact is that not everything you try will work. Discovering that a certain practice doesn’t actually work for your company should be perceived as a positive thing. You are now one step closer to ascertaining what is the right combination of processes and practices for your firm. Categorically, understanding what doesn’t work for you can be just as valuable as understanding what does.
Patient Determination
However, these things do take time and as has been alluded to previously in our article regarding the human aspect of M&A. It is important to maintain a decent level of patience. Without taking an absolute laissez-faire approach, it is important to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, your company post an acquisition won’t reach its ultimate heights instantaneously.
It takes time to develop and understand working relationships and processes. Strategies also need time to come to fruition. Ultimately, the newly merged company must be given time to reach its potential. For this reason, it is important not to place overly high expectations on your company in the short term after an acquisition. There is no problem with being bold and ambitious. However, it is more about playing the long-game. You should not be too discouraged if results don’t go exactly your way in the initial stages of the post-acquisition period.
The Power of a unified vision
Arguably the most important factor throughout this entire process is the upholding of a clear vision. If your company has its sights set on a certain outcome, goals, or even a mentality that is able to unite the firm, then the company will solider on as a team. It will become a collective that is determined to achieve success together. It is easier to achieve success when you know exactly what that success may look or feel like. Resultantly, a newly merged company’s vision for success and where it wants to be in the future should be the very foundation for what binds together each individual inside the firm.
For nothing truly brings people together than a shared desire to achieve something big. Thus, after the acquisition, their minds must turn to the all-important notion of integration. In fact, it has been suggested that “ideally, the acquiring company should begin planning the integration process even before the deal is announced.” In doing so, it becomes clear to top management as to how they can best go about implementing their new vision into the firm’s ethos as fast as possible.
